BUNGLING masked robbers who raided a York newsagent were caught out when they raised their disguises because they could not see.

Thomas Rathbone, 18, formerly of Queen Anne's Road, Bootham, York, and a 17-year-old who cannot be identified for legal reasons, each received 12 months' custody at York Crown Court after they admitted robbing Semark newsagents, Scarborough Terrace, Clifton, of cigarettes worth £11.58.

The shop's CCTV camera footage, which showed the pair bumbling around blindly, was played in court.

The youth's barrister, Charity Norman, told the court: "You could call the robbery inept. He had a hat pulled over his eyes which rendered him blind and you can see him fumbling around before taking the cigarettes."

But the court also heard the robbery terrified the shopkeepers. The pair, who had no previous convictions, drank and smoked cannabis the night before the raid. Rathbone took two Ecstasy tablets and the youth took two-and-a-half.

In the early hours they donned woolly hats, took a crowbar, and tried to break into the Lendal Cellars pub, fleeing when they triggered the alarm.

The youth then suggested attacking the newsagents run by Kevin and Helen Semark.

The couple were in the shop at about 5am when the masked pair came in, the youth brandishing the crowbar.

Prosecutor Peter Moulson said: "Their faces were covered and neither of the defendants spoke. Mr Semark said that it made it more frightening."

Mr Semark dialled 999 and the couple, "numb with fear", retreated into the back room.

The youth grabbed packets of cigarettes and the pair fled when Mrs Semark screamed at them.

Rathbone's barrister, Martin Rudland, said the robbery had been "timorous and half-hearted" with his client playing "second fiddle" to the youth.

In sentencing the pair, Rathbone to 12 months' custody and the youth to a 12-month detention and training order, Judge Paul Hoffman said: "You do not present as callous or hardened individuals. I think you have overreached yourselves in this case and I think it is unlikely that you will ever commit an offence of this nature again."

Updated: 10:38 Saturday, October 27, 2001